On the Land

New Zealand Tablet, 22 February 1917, Page 59

On the Land

♦ GENERAL. ' Burnside Stock Report: —Fat. Cattle. Two huniW^^« and ; nine yarded. ; The : quality t was. very ; good. At m . ; the commencement of r the-sale prices were": down about 20s per head, but they improved towards £ the finish.:; . >; Fat Sheep.-—-1800 were yarded, consisting of fair to ; --.-?■.medium*;sheep, with a few pens of extra prime quality. ; "-.;The sale "opened with a rise on previous week's 'market -vtfrom Is 6d' to 2s/ but about the middle of; the sale owing i?j. to freezing buyers' prices being exceeded, prices dropped.. to previous week's level. a Fat Lambs.—Four hundred :, and fifty lambs were yarded for last week's market, the I quality being fair, with, a few pens of prime lambs : : ,;;■ Prices were on a par with previous - week. - Fat Pigs. — ■ i The' market for fat pigs improved t on previous week's' ;• rates/ but for young pigs prices;showed a drop on late - ■ ■;'..;. rates. ? » %jz- -..} -4 ;:■.■/■'.:[ .;""^r : ' . _;;<;>_" .r<ij ' : -'.'':^%.:^ : ;vc- ; "\- ~—. —.■'. ... — '---.-.■■."'-- ■ ■"_■■ u ; DISEASES OF CORN CROPS. : ; , V" 'A certain amount of disease is ■to be : observed every "-year among cereal crops, much of which could be pre- % vented if" some preventative measures are taken at the / -V time of sowing: the grain (says a writer in Farm, Field, : and Fireside). It so often happens, however, that one .;.is in a hurry to '.' catch the season and cannot spare the - v i:time which is necessary for ;the" pickling of the grain, but it is a great mistake ; not to dress or pickle the ;: -: grain, as if this ; became just as . compulsory;as • sheep- ;. :. dipping ,-less smut, rust, and other destructive diseases <, would be prevalent at harvest time. r ,;;;' % The common fungoid diseases of wheat are ■ . : J • - - Smut and-Bunt, 7 f-T although : there are others less familiar to most farmers, V such'. as rust and mildew, * and ear-cockle ; or pepper-;: • brand, as they are variously termed. Usually the pre- ; - cautions adopted to prevent infection consist in moisten- ■ ing the seed; with some solution ,; that; will destroy the | spores adhering to r the grain, otherwise known as pickling.' ■■/■' ■-■;■-. : A solution-, of copper sulphate is employed as a rule . < for this purpose, the -wheat seed being spread out on the barn floor, sprinkled with a solution, and turned j over with a shovel at intervals, so* as to ensure the .whole-. : of the grain being saturated with the fluid. From Hlb c to 21b of ? copper sulphate in two gallons- of water makes - a solution that is sufficient to dress a quarter of corn: : - . Afterwards the grain is spread out in a thin layer to &> ■ dry,,;^ ; - ■ .";•;, -. ." '^ r : C ; - Both smut and bunt attack all cereal crops besides - wheat, but it is the latter that is chiefly the host of the bunt fungus spore. Smut shows its appearance! in the form, of diseased grains'; filled with black, ;dusty spores, these grains being easily distinguished amongst' :.."'. the other sound ears. ; ■■'■'':\s"r-, n __ Oats and barley are chiefly susceptible to attack from the smut fungus spore, but the damage it does tofv the wheat crop is not by any means ,: inconsiderable. One very quickly notices the presence of ;:;; -•."- : Smut in a Crop of Wheat, . H for if the diseased ears do not : at first catch the eye ■■- the black soot-like dust that gathers 'on the clothes :- * v t when walking through the corn will quickly -indicate its presence. Innumerable spores of the fungus ustilago make up this sooty • substance, and so powerful is it in destroying the grain that often after a heavy shower •• of rain the whole of the powdered tissue of the grain : is washed away, leaving only a bare spike to denote • the ravages of smut. '-Black ears' in . the wheat crop, f ... «C" due to the presence of this disease/is sometimes 7 a very;; / serious^ means of ;reducing;the yield, and every possible ,„ precaution should; be taken to prevent such attacks. In " : contrast, to smut, bunt does not make its presence known ;:. .- \:; so ; conspicuously, unless the diseased grain is rubbed [• or bruised so .that the spores can escape - ~ . Wheat Ears Affected With Bunt ; stand more erect than sound ears,, because they are/not ' l so heavy as the latter, and they also remain green -for s ; ;||" a longer • time towards the ■ approach" of | harvest. When i --! the - grains are rubbed, the fungus spores (Tilletia) ' B v-.. • -. _ ■ . :

escape, and give off ;;a<l foetid odori •• 'Buuty' torn *- is•'/..:v, .f = visually described as' slain'' corn, and may cause a great deterioration in the quality of the flour made from such > S grain. . ....... At one time it was thought that the fungus grew in the tissue of jbhe plant while it was in the seedling stage, and continued growing there until it reached tile ear; hence the familiar ; practice \of pickling the corn. 9 Now/ however, it has been proved that the flowers of the wheat plants are first attacked, and ' not the seedling ' plants themselves. Prevention." In the absence of any other successful method of treating smut in wheat or barley, it may be remarked that some good may be done by placing the seed in? a - ¥M .;■:■ canvas a g and immersing it in absolution of formalin, compounded by dissolving one pint of that substance m (40 per cent, strength) in 36 gallons of water. -■■.-. Thirty bushels of seed ; may ;be treated in this way, and the bag should be allowed to remain in the liquid for at least ten minutes, being afterwards spread out to dry. The. same treatment may be adopted in the 9 case of bunt with a certain amount of success, or a copper : - sulphate solution may be used instead. In thelatter case lib of bluestone should-. be dissolved; in. a - ' : gallon of water and sprinkled over sack (four bushels,) .of corn as it lies on the floor. \ - .-■,■■■ Another remedy for ; the prevention of smut or ■'■■X bunt in wheat is to soak it in hot water at a tempera- -» ture of, say, 130 deg. F., and providing the seed is first" v.; immersed several times in cold water before; sowing this ,* treatment will not have any bad effect upon the vitality ?; ■: of the seed, but will prove, 1 to a certain extent, efficacious "(M iv in destroying the fungus spores of 'smut and bunt. f' f ;_r._ Rust; in wheat may be found in most seasons, when it is noticed that certain wheat stalks are blotched with brown or black marks, arranged more or less in , lines,"'. the rust-like appearance of> these blotches giving rise to the name of the disease, the presence of which is so indicated—namely, rust. This, rust Jis,;j however, only the forerunner of a serious fungoid pest known as r ; - ";. - Mildew. i-• !- ,-'--; ~,~ When the blotches turn almost a complete black, the mildew has seized ; upon the plant, and the latter is ; '■% then unable to form seed in a healthy state, so that the grain is either very much shrivelled when it is formed. ;>■ or else there is no grain at all. / ' -•_ Damp, low-lying soils are especially favorable to . i mildew \in wheat, but in almost any situation \ this and | - - the other forms of fungus diseases that; have '*• been - men-. 1 1 tioned above will be more or less prevalent if the variety of what cultivated is not well adapted to the peculiar ) nature 'of » the .soil : and. climate in which it i; is grown. The farmer needs to ascertain which particular variety , ; suits his land best for this reason alone, if for no other. ■■'■%-. Similarly, in order to avoid the presence }of ! mildew or smut or bunt «in the wheat crop, attention must be given .to ; such preparations as will ensure a ; strong, healthy plant, as, for instance; the best methods of ';- cultivation, seasonable sowings, good drainage, judicious ; manuring, and a clean seed-bed. There is a disease known, as ! r - .." ; .!■•-,:., . ;: Ear-Cockle or Pepper-Brand,, ;, which causes the wheat plant to develop a kind of gall- '-M like peppercorn, instead of a grain of ordinary :size. 1 At first sight this gall appears to contain: a ; quantity - of some fibrous . material, but ;as a matter of ? fact the latter is -composed of innumerable minute eelworms, -■[,- which are supposed to ascend from the; moist soil below - ■-' through the sap into the grain. It is a disease that does not do a; great amount of harm to the wheat crop, ;:-; in any case it is improbable that either thecopper sulphate or the formalin solutions would have any appre- :• tciable effect in destroying the eelworms. Prevention :is : best ■ accomplished, s However/ by tak- : ing care that none of these peppercorns are .sown with 1 the seed. Another practice that often proves successful in preventing this disease amongst the wheat plants : is that of soaking the ; seed in a weak solution of sulphuric acid. . The latter does not effect the germinating - I.capacity of ; the wheat grain, but it kill's the peppercorns, or at any rate the latter float on the surface of the liquid and can be easily skimmed off *